Global Courant 2023-04-14 09:02:16
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea said Friday it has tested its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, a possible breakthrough in its efforts to acquire a more powerful, harder-to-detect weapon aimed at the mainland United States.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency released the report a day after the country’s neighbors discovered a long-range missile launch near Pyongyang, extending a series of weapons displays involving more than 100 missiles in the sea since the beginning. 2022. .
Thursday’s test did not appear to demonstrate the full capability of the weapon, and it remains unclear how far North Korea has come in mastering technologies to ensure its warhead can withstand atmospheric reentry and accurately hit targets. Still, analysts said the test was likely an important advancement in North Korea’s goal to build a nuclear arsenal that could directly threaten the United States.
KCNA said the launch was supervised on site by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who described the missile, dubbed Hwasong-18, as the most powerful weapon of his nuclear forces that would bolster the counterattack in the face of external threats. created by the military. activities of the United States and its regional allies.
Kim promised to further expand his nuclear arsenal to “constantly instill extreme anxiety and horror” in his rivals and make them regret their wrong choices.
North Korea has justified its weapons demonstrations as a response to growing military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which the North condemns as invasion rehearsals while using them as a pretext to boost its own weapons development.
Kim added that the Hwasong-18 would quickly advance North Korea’s nuclear response and further support an aggressive military strategy that promises to maintain a “head-on confrontation” against its rivals.
North Korea has tested several intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017 that have demonstrated the potential range to reach the US mainland, but the others use liquid fuel that must be added relatively close to launch and they cannot be refueled for extended periods of time provided.
An ICBM with built-in solid propellant would be easier to move, conceal and fire quickly, reducing the chances for adversaries to detect and counter the launch. It’s not immediately clear how close the North is to having a functional solid fuel ICBM capable of hitting the US mainland.
South Korea’s defense ministry described the Hwasong-18 flight as an “intermediate stage test” in a statement and said North Korea would need more time and effort to complete the system. It claims that North Korea’s technologies have not yet reached the point where it can protect its ICBM warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry.
Last month, South Korea’s Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup also told lawmakers that North Korea likely has not yet acquired the technology to mount nuclear warheads on its newer short-range missiles aimed at South Korea, though he acknowledged that the country made significant progress in the field of Het.
Still, Thursday’s test represented a “significant breakthrough for the North Koreans, but not an unexpected one,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The primary significance of solid fuel ICBMs is what they will do for the survivability of North Korea’s overall ICBM force,” he said.
“Because these missiles are fueled at the time of manufacture and thus ready for use when needed, they will be deployable much more quickly in a crisis or conflict, depriving South Korea and the United States of valuable time that could be useful. to preemptively hunt and destroy such missiles.”
North Korean state media published photos of the missile fired from a launch vehicle at a test site in a forest, while Kim watched from an observation post along with military officials and his daughter.
KCNA described the Hwasong-18 as a three-stage missile with the first stage tested on a standard ballistic trajectory and the others programmed to fly at higher angles after separation to evade North Korea’s neighbors. It was not immediately clear how the third stage was tested, where the warhead would theoretically be placed.
The agency said the first and second phases fell into waters off the country’s east coast. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published an aerial photo of an object that it described as the third stage after separation, but state media gave no further details.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul University of North Korean Studies, said North Korea likely designed the third stage as an empty device for the test and simply dropped it after separation.
He noted that North Korea did not release details about how high the missile went, suggesting it was not tested with the weapon’s full capability and range, and said the North is likely to test the system several more times.
Soo Kim, an expert at Virginia-based consulting firm LMI and a former CIA analyst, said each successive test by North Korea “seems to show more options for the regime to provoke and threaten the region.”
“With the Day of the Sun festivities approaching, and a US-South Korean summit just around the corner, the timing is also ripe for a North Korean provocation for (Kim Jong Un) to remind us once again that his guns are getting bigger, better, and all the more challenging for the US, South Korea and the international community to deal with,” she said.
She was referring to the birthday of Kim’s founding grandfather, Kim Il Sung, which falls on Saturday, and a summit planned this month in Washington between President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Solid-fuel ICBMs highlighted an extensive wish list Kim announced in 2021 under a five-year weapons development plan, which also included tactical nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines and spy satellites.
The North has fired some 30 missiles in 12 different launches this year alone as both the pace of weapons development and US and South Korean military exercises accelerate on a tit-for-tat cycle. The U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted their largest field exercises in years last month, holding separate joint naval and air force exercises involving a U.S. carrier strike group and U.S. nuclear-armed bombers.
North Korea claimed that the exercises simulated all-out war against North Korea and communicated threats against North Korea. The United States and South Korea have said their exercises are defensive in nature and their expansion was necessary to meet the North’s evolving threats.
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